Queue is broken

Flangdoodle · February 21

I don't know what happened after the last edition of Whitestrake's Mayhem, but ever since then the queue for Gray Host is broken. Friday night (2/20/2026) was the worst I've seen it since the old 200+ "Midyear Mayhem" days. Everyone was talking about how the queue was ridiculously long (even for a Friday), and worse - took FOREVER to get through. I myself started in queue at 4:30pm PST at #72 aiming for a 6pm PST guild raid, and it took me over an hour and a half to get into Gray Host. Other people in guild chat talked about being in queues of over 100 and some missed the raid entirely. How are people supposed to plan for a scheduled raid like this? And while Friday was the worst it has been - it's been somewhat like this every night.

It's not as though there are hundreds of new people coming into Cyrodiil - at least not as evidenced by the names I see 1) when fighting 2) in my kill feed, and 3) in zone. It's the same names as usual for that time slot. If there are, great and congratulations, but it doesn't seem like it. What happened? My armchair theory is that the pop-cap must have been expanded for Mayhem and when the event was over it was brought back to pre-testing levels or something, but I have no idea. Anyway if you guys could fix whatever broke it'd be great.

Cheers.

Flangdoodle · March 21

UPDATE

It has been 1 month since I posted this, and as I type I have been in queue for Gray Host tonight (3/20/2026) for 1 hour and 25 minutes.

I started at #107 and now I am at #50. This is ridiculous. Fix what you broke. A queue like this on a non-PVP event weekend is unacceptable.

Flangdoodle · March 21

Update 2 - it took me 3 HOURS to get through that queue. WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!

Theignson · March 21

Queue is completely broken. Last night at 1:30 AM (EST) I queued up and the queue was 25 players!

Then, when I got in (EP as always), there was a huge AD zerg but EP was way outnumbered despite supposedly poplocked with a queue.
The only thing happening on the map was AD zerg taking everything

The queue has been broken since MYM I agree

For a long time there have been rumors that people are creating free alt accounts and logging in to clog the queue/ and/or inflate the opponent population. Players obviously have no way to prove this

However something is seriously wrong

Unfortunately this PvP forum has died so no one reads it

YandereGirlfriend · March 21

There's no conspiracy, the new patch and direction of the game is good and old players are returning.

More players are simply in the queue and wanting to PvP than before. This is a good thing.

Flangdoodle · March 21

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

There's no conspiracy, the new patch and direction of the game is good and old players are returning.

More players are simply in the queue and wanting to PvP than before. This is a good thing.

Agree there's no conspiracy - and rumors are ... well rumors, and not helpful. However, something has definitely changed since the last MYM, and as I said, I'm seeing the same people both in-game, and in zone chat. There's been nothing to explain this sudden bump in people queueing if there in fact is one. We expect it during events, or when there is some bonus to be gained for coming into Cyrodiil, but TMK there's been nothing that would otherwise cause it?

I'm EP. Is it happening on the other factions as well?

YandereGirlfriend · March 21

Flangdoodle wrote: »

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

There's no conspiracy, the new patch and direction of the game is good and old players are returning.

More players are simply in the queue and wanting to PvP than before. This is a good thing.

Agree there's no conspiracy - and rumors are ... well rumors, and not helpful. However, something has definitely changed since the last MYM, and as I said, I'm seeing the same people both in-game, and in zone chat. There's been nothing to explain this sudden bump in people queueing if there in fact is one. We expect it during events, or when there is some bonus to be gained for coming into Cyrodiil, but TMK there's been nothing that would otherwise cause it?

I'm EP. Is it happening on the other factions as well?

Yes, PC-NA all three factions have Disneyland-like queues basically every day of the week now.

Gotta queue-in like two hours early if you want to make it in during prime time.

Adamus · April 4

2 hours in que today.
120 min... que of 138... and I'm not even through yet.
I only have 2 hours to play... my entire gameplay tonight is standing in one place waiting in que, missing the Cyrodiil raid. The only reason I'm not logging out to play some other game is to prove a point... even if it's sitting in que for 2 hours and 10 mins of gameplay. Increase the Pop already, PvPers aren't going to give up and go do PvE stuff... they'll give up and play a different game.

Attorneyatlawl · April 4

Adamus wrote: »

2 hours in que today.
120 min... que of 138... and I'm not even through yet.
I only have 2 hours to play... my entire gameplay tonight is standing in one place waiting in que, missing the Cyrodiil raid. The only reason I'm not logging out to play some other game is to prove a point... even if it's sitting in que for 2 hours and 10 mins of gameplay. Increase the Pop already, PvPers aren't going to give up and go do PvE stuff... they'll give up and play a different game.

If enough people instead queued for a second campaign, this wouldn't be an issue. The capacity is there it's just not per campaign.

Adamus · April 4

Attorneyatlawl wrote: »

If enough people instead queued for a second campaign

Regulars want to continue playing the campaign they regularly play because a majority of primetime players aren't solo... most play as teams, with friends and guild mates, additionally invested in one particular campaign over another.

Try convincing returning players not to join the populated/popular server. There's either a wave of new players returning/joining who are interested in PvP in Cyro, pop caps were reduced, or both. If it's a wave of returning/new players, semantic solutions like this do not address the core issue, may lose players interest, the potential revenue those players might bring in, as well as the ripple effect of bandwagon players that would follow a positive review on a 10+ year old game. A 2 hour+ que kills that.

Flangdoodle · April 19

UPDATE

This is frankly getting ridiculous. There are long queues for Gray Host from about 3pm to 11pm pst. every day - and longer still on weekends. Folks in my group have to queue at least 1-1/2 to two hours before raid starts to even hope they'll get in with some time to play as a group. More and more people are missing the raid entirely because they didn't get into queue HOURS before the raid was supposed to start. And Divines help you if you crash and are unable to get right back in - you're right back in the 100+ queue.

[case in point: Right now, on a Sunday afternoon at 1:23 PST the queue is at 65. That likely means that if you enter queue now you might get in by 3pm - if you don't get kicked from queue before you get into Gray Host]

This is not sustainable. We love this game and the community it has enabled us to build, but it's getting impossible to plan anything as a community because we don't all have 2 extra hours to sit through a torturously slow queue. And even for those of us who do - we get into Cyrodiil and then are basically twiddling our thumbs until our friends can get on. That can't be good for the queue either, and that built-in response is TBH probably only making it worse.

TMK the only thing ZOS has even mentioned about this - even tangentially - is that they are... going to close all of the other campaigns and leave only Vengeance and Gray Host? How in Oblivion is that going to help??? It's not like the players who run in the other campaigns are ALL going to go to Vengeance.

As mentioned above, this can't be only a problem on EP - it's got to be being felt campaign-wide. PLEASE address this issue. It started after Whitestrake's Mayhem and has been getting progressively worse. I'm going to plead ignorance here - I have my pet theories, but I really have no idea what the root cause of this is. All I know is that the queue is broken.

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_GinaBruno is there any word from the requisite team(s) about this issue?

Ostonoha · April 19

Attorneyatlawl wrote: »

Adamus wrote: »

2 hours in que today.
120 min... que of 138... and I'm not even through yet.
I only have 2 hours to play... my entire gameplay tonight is standing in one place waiting in que, missing the Cyrodiil raid. The only reason I'm not logging out to play some other game is to prove a point... even if it's sitting in que for 2 hours and 10 mins of gameplay. Increase the Pop already, PvPers aren't going to give up and go do PvE stuff... they'll give up and play a different game.

If enough people instead queued for a second campaign, this wouldn't be an issue. The capacity is there it's just not per campaign.

Saw an EP que this weekend of 180 (PC-NA) Was told DC had a que of over 100 no idea what the AD q was.

Blackreach had 1 bar pop across. Nobody wants to go there sadly.

Can we go back to the larger server pops again? I do not remember the lag being that bad where it was impossible

Red_Nine · April 19

The queue depth problem deserves an answer from ZOS. It's getting to the point where it's not worth it for PvPers to keep ESO+ so I don't understand the dial tone here on such a simple question.

marlonbrando · April 20

Red_Nine wrote: »

The queue depth problem deserves an answer from ZOS. It's getting to the point where it's not worth it for PvPers to keep ESO+ so I don't understand the dial tone here on such a simple question.

Seconded. What the heck is going on here? The queues are long every day and they move S L O W L Y

imPDA · April 20

If queue is long then GH is fully loaded and nobody wants to leave it, but GH is unpopular campaign they told me (sarcasm). 120 per faction and 50-100 in queue. With numbers like this they could open second GH, and both campaigns would be fully loaded on prime time, and it would shorten a queue, but they are going to remove BR instead. What a bold move! 100% calculated and problem-solving :P

Ostonoha · April 20

Red_Nine wrote: »

The queue depth problem deserves an answer from ZOS. It's getting to the point where it's not worth it for PvPers to keep ESO+ so I don't understand the dial tone here on such a simple question.

Really having ESO+ should have always allowed people priority q. 2 separate Qs one for subs one for non subs. Allow 5 people from priority que in, 5 from non sub. or w.e formula they think is fair.

But it is becoming more of an issue as people are getting into que 2 hours before they intend to play. Once they are in sitting afk for hours until their entire group gets on. It only makes the problem even worse but I understand why they would do it. Something does need to be done about the que.

ToddIngram · April 20

Ostonoha wrote: »

Red_Nine wrote: »

The queue depth problem deserves an answer from ZOS. It's getting to the point where it's not worth it for PvPers to keep ESO+ so I don't understand the dial tone here on such a simple question.

Really having ESO+ should have always allowed people priority q. 2 separate Qs one for subs one for non subs. Allow 5 people from priority que in, 5 from non sub. or w.e formula they think is fair.

But it is becoming more of an issue as people are getting into que 2 hours before they intend to play. Once they are in sitting afk for hours until their entire group gets on. It only makes the problem even worse but I understand why they would do it. Something does need to be done about the que.

No it shouldn't. Giving plus subscribers priority placement would hose over the rest of the player base and be a form of pay to win or at least pay to play.

To fix the queue they need to restore the original population caps and performance....as they've said they were working on every year until this year.

denise987654321nub18_ESO · April 20

This has been my experience as well and I'm on the West coast so I'm queueing up later than most in the US for primetime. I only like to PVP since I've done all of the main PVE content and the long queue times are making it so I can only play the game for a short time or only on the weekends.

I'm pretty forgiving of bugs and issues like lag in PVP but my patience is tested when I've been in queue for over an hour and then find out I'm stuck and have to re-queue. This was manageable when the queue times were reasonable but now it means I have to skip playing altogether. Same situation if I crash while in PVP and then get countless error messages disallowing me to log in and then ending up kicked from Cyro once I do finally get in.

Can we please get an update on what happened to the queues and why they are so long now?

LadyGP · April 20

ZoS has always been extremly vague and hesitant to talk about the queue or reveal what the popcap is - I'm sure they have their reasons but it doesnt make sense to be - but I do with they would be a bit more transparent about this.

It "feels" like it's... 100.. maybe 150.

I don't mind waiting in a queue to get into the game but my bigger frustration comes in when you get hardcrashed/disconnected and have to jump back in queue. Bascially, as soon as you get kicked and aren't in cyro when you log back in you know youre night of gaming in ESO is over - and thats extremly disappointing and a terrible player experience.. IMO.

I do wish they would bump the camp up a bit... yes we know there will be lag during extreme fights where the majority of the server meets up but... right now it seems like it is so low that there end up being MANY moments where people are just sitting around and it feels like a ghost town.

I do hope ZoS takes a look internally and puts there heads together on a solution.. surley there is some middleground we can come to.

To the overall point - U49 was such a good change in direction that ALOT of players are coming back, keep up the great work team!

imPDA · April 20

From testing we learned it is exactly 120 per faction (ZOS revealed it) since long ago (but they could change it, so, nobody can say for sure for sure).

From Steam charts, it is hard to believe people are returning, it is natural to see increased number of players from February to July, but they are lower in year-to-year comparison. Current March-April online is comparable to 2018 Mart-April online, never after 2018 it was this low.

Ostonoha · April 20

ToddIngram wrote: »

Ostonoha wrote: »

Red_Nine wrote: »

The queue depth problem deserves an answer from ZOS. It's getting to the point where it's not worth it for PvPers to keep ESO+ so I don't understand the dial tone here on such a simple question.

Really having ESO+ should have always allowed people priority q. 2 separate Qs one for subs one for non subs. Allow 5 people from priority que in, 5 from non sub. or w.e formula they think is fair.

But it is becoming more of an issue as people are getting into que 2 hours before they intend to play. Once they are in sitting afk for hours until their entire group gets on. It only makes the problem even worse but I understand why they would do it. Something does need to be done about the que.

No it shouldn't. Giving plus subscribers priority placement would hose over the rest of the player base and be a form of pay to win or at least pay to play.

To fix the queue they need to restore the original population caps and performance....as they've said they were working on every year until this year.

I disagree. I think it should exist for those exact reasons you listed. But hey it’s just my view of things.

But it would’ve been better to just go back to increased pops. I personally do not think the lag was that bad when they were randomly increasing the pop. We had fights all over.